Klaus Voormann bass - Vox?

[casapete]

Just watching some 60’s stuff on TV, and saw Manfred Mann doing ‘Fox on the run’ with Klaus Voorman

on bass circa 1968. He was playing what looked like an 8 string - found these pics on Google, and it says Vox

on the headstock. I’ve never seen one like this, and it does look a bit ‘customised’ so just wondered

if anyone could verify what it is?

 

 

[Waddo Soqable]

That surely has to be a "special", I can't think there's any way that'd be remotely a production instrument !... But ?? 

[casapete]

5 hours ago, Waddo Soqable said:

That surely has to be a "special", I can't think there's any way that'd be remotely a production instrument !... But ?? 

My thoughts exactly. Just wondered if there was a story behind the bass that someone on here may 

know about. My knowledge of stuff like this is non existent!

[bloke_zero]

That is an amazing looking thing. I count at least 3 pickups? P pickup at an extreme angle neck bottom strings?! 2 guitar pickups off set and then there is the same plastic mounting as the P-pickup at the bridge which might have something?

[BigRedX]

I think the Vox logo might be a bit of a red herring, although it is a Vox logo it's not the one that usually associated with their guitars and basses which uses script style lettering. Having said that the neck could well have started off life on a Vox Phantom 12-string guitar, the headstock looks like a modified version of that shape, and the middle two pickups also look like they might have come from the same instrument. As for the rest of it, who knows?

 

To me it looks like an 8-string version of a Bass VI. The bottom four strings look like bass guitar strings, the top 4 strings might be paired but it is difficult to see from the photos.

[KK Jale]

Aka the "Vootar". Dreamed up by Voormann in 1965. Basically a one-off Vox with four bass strings and the top four strings of a guitar, routed to separate amps.

 

A later version was the Cassandra Elk, with 30" scale, of which there are just three, one owned by Macca...

 

Edited May 23, 2023 by KK Jale